Chapter 141: Fake! Way Too Fake!

Chapter 141: Fake! Way Too Fake!

Wu Chen wore his habitual faint smile. When he saw Li Maoren’s eyes come to him, he met them without a flicker.

Li Maoren had looked at him first simply to see what attitude the young man would take on meeting him. But the calmer Wu Chen was, the more convinced Li Maoren became that his daughter had arranged all of this in advance and drilled him beforehand. That composure was itself wrong.

This was how a young man behaved on being presented to his girlfriend’s father?

Fake at a glance.

“Call ahead?” Li Maoren turned to his daughter. “So you could get your preparations in order for dealing with me?” His face gave nothing away as he threw the question straight back at her.

Li Ruobing’s expression froze, and then she smiled—that willful, cold smile that said plainly, Talk if you want to talk; otherwise I’ll leave.

“Dad. A surprise attack? Didn’t we agree that until the date comes, you keep out of my business?” The date she meant was the settlement date of her wager with Ding Ruilong.

Father and daughter had gunpowder in their mouths from the first word.

Because the relationship had never been good to begin with.

Years ago Li Maoren had used his wife’s grave illness as a pretext to trick Li Ruobing into coming home, and then tried to force her into marriage. Several years had passed, and nothing between her and the family had ever thawed. Two years ago she would not even take his calls. These past two years she took them—and nearly every one ended in a quarrel.

“You can’t even look after your own brother, and now he’s landed himself in trouble this size, and you’re blaming me for coming to Donghai?” Li Maoren shot back.

“How is that on me? You—”

“Hey! Dad! Dad! Sis! Sis! Don’t argue, don’t argue.” Li Ruotai hurried over a few steps. “Don’t start the moment you set eyes on each other. It’s been over half a year. Come on, don’t argue…”

Li Ruobing glanced at her brother and could not be bothered to go on.

She tugged at Wu Chen and slipped her arm through his, that very fake smile returning to her face. She leaned into him, all intimacy, and introduced him to her father with great seriousness.

“Dad. Allow me to introduce him properly. This is my boyfriend, Wu Chen.”

Obviously calculated to needle him.

Without waiting for her father to react, she introduced Li Maoren to Wu Chen.

“Darling, this is my father. You can call him—well, he’s a few years older than your father, so Uncle will do for now. Once we’re married you can change how you address him.” Her voice was very soft when she spoke to Wu Chen, and the way she looked at him seemed full of love.

Talk of marriage, too?

Even faker.

Li Maoren had heard his own daughter tell him to his face that she would never marry—though the family wanted her married, married into the Ding family.

“Uncle. A pleasure to meet you,” Wu Chen said with a smile.

Li Maoren looked at him without expression. Then, just as the air was about to turn awkward, he actually stood and put out his hand.

Wu Chen extended his own, and the two shook.

By the etiquette of the thing, when elder and junior meet, the elder must offer his hand first; only then may the junior respond. For the younger man to reach out first would be improper, gracelessly so.

Which was why Wu Chen had not offered his hand first. Had Li Maoren declined to take it, Wu Chen would only have humiliated himself.

But even Li Ruobing had not expected her father to offer his hand to Wu Chen of his own accord.

He could be this cordial?

Where had the cordiality been a moment ago, when he was snapping at her?

Li Maoren had little choice. What else could he do? However formidable he was, he could not control his daughter. However badly they quarrelled, there would always be a day when things could mend. But if he went after Wu Chen now, his daughter would very likely turn on the spot, take the young man, and walk out.

And then there would be no conversation at all.

It was not that Li…